What do you go to in that moment when a bad day turns into the worst day? When that altercation turned into a situation and that situation is now a reality that is lingering and sticking?

What did you go to when your heart cracked and fell and darkness was suddenly not just the sun setting?

I thought I knew the answer to that question for Marco. I had heard it so many times.

Marco was a sponsored child. His sponsor wrote him faithfully for several years. At age twelve Marco’s life darkened when a family situation (which he did not divulge) left him feeling hopeless.

He explained to us that in those days he needed encouragement. He needed hope.

Before he could finish his sentence I ran through all the options. ALL the options for a child in poverty, as if the list were vast?

The options that people I knew had run to: Drugs. Violence. Alcohol.

I waited for Marco’s response, with less than bated breath, because I had already figured it out.

He responded,

“I turned to the letters from my sponsor.”

He went to his room when the pain had become too heavy. He opened the box that held all the letters, all the letters that maybe his sponsor wondered if he received and read. He pulled each letter out. He read them. Over and over and over.

As he explained about the hope and encouragement that he extracted from those letters, one thought had taken up complete residence within me,

What if my letters were the alternative to drugs? To violence? To a path of hopelessness?

Marco shared his situation with his sponsor. His sponsor continued to write and pray and ask Marco how he was doing. One year later, Marco was baptized.

Today, Marco works for Compassion. He still talks to his former sponsor. They’ve met.

What if today, your sponsored child needs to hear she is loved? Or prayed for? Or that God has a plan for his life? What if God wanted to use your letters to pave a path of hope for a child in poverty who had next to nothing to turn to in the midst of distress?

Ok, I’m laying it on thick. I get that. But I’m not relenting. Not this time. This time there is a face and a name and a future that was realized.

This time, a boy in poverty was welcomed into the Kingdom of Heaven, forever saved from an eternity apart from God. Saved from the other choices that would have tried to boast hope in an otherwise hopeless situation.

Your words to a child in a poverty are too precious to set aside. Too precious to become buried in a list of to-dos. They were all too precious to Marco.

You should write a letter to your sponsored child today.

And, after you write your sponsored child, be sure to keep following the Compassion Bloggers in Peru. They are brimming with stories. Their hearts are bursting and you can read why now.

Also, you can join a Twitter chat happening tonight at 9:00pm EST. The Compassion Bloggers will be online waiting to chat with you and answer your questions! Just log onto Twitter and search for #compassion. Then you’re in.

I am telling you, there is nothing like a twitter party! Get your party hats out and leave your party pants at home (mostly because you will be joining from the comfort of your home ☺)

Letter from my sponsor really matters a lot. Being a former sponsored child, I treat the letters I received as a love letter. It energizes me and gives me strength. It is something that warms my heart that makes me feel that someone cares for me and love me from the other side of the world.
Thank you for this blog, that reminds me of the priceless moments.

Brianne, that was very encouraging…thank you for sharing about Marco. The Compassion Bloggers in Peru link was not working so I’m trying to find another way to link to it as I always love reading the bloggers’ accounts. Thanks!

This is so encouraging to read, as a sponsor of 3 decades.
I think my earliest sponsor kids might even be grandparents now.
I wonder if they ever think about me, their former sponsor, or pray for me? I do keep praying for all I have ever sponsored, sponsor now, and will sponsor in the future. Somehow we still touch each other through God and prayer.